Kaitlyn Barnard

The most effective approach is framing research as a revenue opportunity, not a nice-to-have. Leadership moves faster when they can see a direct connection between what you learn and what it means for pipeline, deal size, or new market potential. The question isn't "can we afford to do this research." It's "what does it cost us not to know this." A few things that have worked for me: Get buy-in on the questions before you start. Write a short exec memo outlining what you're trying to learn, why ...Read More

Not everything needs to make a huge splash. This is where having a tiered launch system helps manage expectations. Some features aren't going to get the same amount of eyeballs as others. And that's ok! If everything gets a full launch moment, nothing feels important. Here are a few ways I approach positioning non-remarkable features: Lead with impact, not the feature. Even for small updates, find the "so what". Lean into the reason the feature was built in the first place. Sometimes even just a ...Read More

Across my last few roles focused on API infrastructure products, one of the most impactful research findings has been around developer behavior and how much it has shifted. A lot of developer and engineer roles at organizations don't follow typical titles anymore. A software engineer can own purchasing decisions, influence the roadmap, run evaluations, and champion tools to their team. All without a title that signals any of that. And the buying committee within accounts looks a lot different th ...Read More

The first step is getting clear on what decision the research needs to inform. Unfocused research takes forever. Know exactly what you're trying to answer before you start collecting anything. A few ways to work efficiently:  Start with what you already have. Internal data, existing research, sales call recordings, review sites. You have a lot of existing insight right in front of you before even needing to go external.  Use AI to compress synthesis time. Summarizing transcripts, tagging themes, ...Read More

Here is how I’d structure my 30-60-90 day plan as a PMM at a new company. Depending on the scope of your initial work, these timelines can be condensed.   30 Days Start by listening. Schedule 1:1s with as many folks as you can across different teams to see where they think the opportunities and gaps are. Sales, CS, product, executives, etc.  Identify the assumptions already baked into the current strategy to see if you can validate them (or not) within your research. You’re a fresh set of eyes a ...Read More

There are a lot of great tools out there that are available for free (or with free trials). You just have to get a bit creative and be willing to experiment with which combo of tools work best for you.  Internal sources Customer interviews and prospect conversations Sales call recordings (ex. Gong) Support tickets and NPS results Win/loss reports External sources Review sites: G2, Gartner Peer Insights,  Capterra, TrustRadius. Reddit, Hacker News, Discord, and Slack communities where your person ...Read More

This is different at every company I've been at! At startups, it's typically up to you and a bit more scrappy. Trying to get as much information as you can with very minimal resources (i.e. Google is your best friend). At bigger companies, I tend to see they have a lot more resources, whether that is dedicated data or research teams, or just budget to invest in better research tools or outside research firms. I don't have one favorite framework. I tend to find that the best choice is: The one th ...Read More

This can be so tricky because everyone consumes information in different ways so it really differs depending on the company and the teams. My #1 piece of advice is to try to leverage the information sharing processes your organization already has in place before introducing something new. If you can piggyback on processes people are already used to, it'll expedite this and improve your chances that people are actually reading the research. Here are the ways I've seen work at different organizati ...Read More

Not having customers doesn't mean not having access to your target persona. You just have to be more creative about where you find them: Tap your network: First and second degree LinkedIn connections who match your ICP are a great starting point. Oftentimes, people love to talk about what they’re working on and the challenges they run into. Find them where they already are: Reddit, Slack communities, Discord servers, and LinkedIn groups. Your target persona is already hanging out somewhere. Go t ...Read More

If you want to go deeper on the tactical side of using AI for research, here is how I actually use it day to day: Choose the right tool for the job: I use Claude and ChatGPT regularly and they have different strengths. There is also a growing ecosystem of PMM-specific AI tools out there worth exploring. That said, I still prefer building my own workflows in Claude or ChatGPT. You get more flexibility and control over the output, and it's one less tool to add to your stack. Competitive intelligen ...Read More